Gauntlet's Guide to Megaman Pages

If you're actually at this site, you already know most of this information. After all, the Mechanical Maniacs is geared towards people who already know allot about Megaman and a little about the Megaman Community. In fact to actually find this page, you probably heard of it through word of mouth. But, I feel like delving into this guide because I can't sleep right now and hopefully this will stupify me to sleep.

There are many Megaman pages. About a bazillion gazillain million to be exact. And out of those many sites, there are only a few categorized types of pages. Understand that no page will fit cleanly into one category. Most of the time pages spill out into two or more. But, at their heart, they always belong to only one category.

1 - Information pages.

Information pages have one primary goal: to give out information (duh!). An information page generally has character information, game information, new releases, and sometimes scans of official art. The purpose? A virtual "Megaman Encyclopedia". Need an image? Go to a Megaman information site.

Megaman information sites are THE most popular type of site in the community. No if ands or buts. Why? Because they appeal to the new people. For about a year of their online lives, new people (which internet slang refers to as "newbies") go through almost nothing but information pages because THAT'S what they want - information. When people search on the internet, they search for information sites most of the time.

Pros: A good shelf life. Done right, information sites have allot to offer. Examples? Mandi's Megaman Homepage has the only walkthrough you'll need for the MM games. MM X Online has all the information you'll ever need about X - and some info you don't! MM Masters has a HUGE image gallery with many rare images (and I should know - I helped Nightmare Zero gather many of those images myself!). Information sites try to be the very first to get game information which means that MM fans go to only one source for all their news. All in all, being an information site is perhaps THE way to go for most MM pages.

Cons: However, there are already too many good information pages. One really doesn't need any more than I've already listed. Also, while information pages do make what they do look easy - it is not!

Example? Megaman Outpost updates very nearly every day to stay on top of things. Do YOU have that sort of time? If you do, then GREAT! You can be popular! If you fail though, you'll look VERY foolish. An "upcoming games" information page is handy, sure but you really need to keep up or be left behind! Also, while you may consider yourself pretty keen, there's already several MAJOR information pages already covering upcoming games in far greater detail than seems possible. Another news site is really unnecessary. Example? News tends to inbreed. They take each other's upcoming news - almost the very day it is posted! - and place it on their site. Which isn't to say they don't give credit - the best ones do - it just shows that the system has become a little redundant.

Also, what new piece of information do you have to contribute? I see allot of new MM pages which tell of the bosses in each game and what weapon they're weak to. Well, woop-dee-do, I can get that info from Mandi's MM HP or a GAMING site, why do I need you? Making a information site is no easy task.

2 - Fan pages.

The second most largest chunk of the community. Fan pages tend to center around fan-created things such as: fiction, art, and music. Anything that is centered to "the fans".

In case you haven't noticed, THIS is a fan page.

Fan pages attract MM fans who have been around longer than a year or two. Let's face it - when you're new the big information sites are great, they really are - but after you've been around a while ........ well, you want a little more. This is where fan pages come in. They get second billing because most of the time information pages and "official info" is all the casual fan wants. Unless they begin to have some sort of vested interest in the little boy in tights, they won't wanna read stories based on him.

But fan pages are a truly great breed of MM fandom. No two are exactly alike since the main focus is the body of work presented. While information pages have really repetitive bits of info, fan pages by their very nature do not.

However, all is not well in paradise. Like information pages, fan pages take work. Often they receive MUCH lower hit rates than their info counterparts and much less recognition too. This is because public perception of the word "fan" is CRAP. Unless the maintainer produces a SUBSTANTIAL amount of work, many fans will simply turn away. Especially for fan fiction! Because of this fact, even this happy web master has gone into small bouts of depression regarding his site. However, persistence is rewarded! Updating well and with regularity helps breed a good amount of content and the more there is, the better.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

3 - Sprite Pages.

Think these are fan pages? Or even information pages? Well, normally I would say "yes" but sheer numbers make up this section. The very first real sprite page was Pixelboy's Megaman Corner (later Megaman Mainframe). It sought to catalogue every 8-bit MM sprite. Sound impressive? For the pioneering days, it was. Strictly speaking such a page is an information page - it offers OFFICIAL Capcom art. In fact Pixelboy's MM art selection is almost unrivaled to this day! But the sprites were truly the heart and soul of the page.

Now, spriters are almost always obsessive-compulsive. They MUST have EVERY SPRITE FROM THE GAME. And so comes Sprites Inc. which has every single frame of animation of every character to EVER appear in sprites form in ALMOST ALL MM games. It is also a direct descendent of Pixelboy's MM Mainframe. For the most part it spells the end to sprite collecting for the average joe. Don't act sad, most pages before then had a meager and repetitive selection of sprites offered up in their "sprites section". Only a few (like this page!) offer anything truly hard to find that is NOT covered in Sprites Inc. However, the dawn of the obsessive effort of Sprites INC. has bred a new annoyance: unnecessary. sprite pages. See a sprites section on a Megaman site lately? Did it have impressive sprite sheets of MM in full motion from every single game? Well, my friends, that is Sprites INC. Instead of taking the effort to get single sprites for themselves, people have now taken a liking to steal those of Sprite INC.'s. "But, why stop at single sprites?", they ask. Why indeed? So now, legions of pages have taken content everyone can readily find at Sprites INC. first making their sprites section redundant and a complete waste of time.

There's a deeper vein to all this though. Sprite pages also include an entire legion of "spriters". People who devote themselves to making customized sprites for their own amusement. With various levels of "customization" of course. Sound small? Why an entirely new section?? Well, THAT'S MOSTLY WHAT THEY DO! They make sprites and fill up pages of their work. It goes so far that we actually hold contests. There's an entire community.

Now, spriting is popular in the community. Some Spriters achieve cult status if their reasonably good and know a few people. Spriters are also very popular among web page staff who are too lazy to do sprites themselves. Spriting is sorta fun and sometimes useful to spruce up a person's webpage. However, sprites in the MM community serve little actual purpose. Some make full sheets of moves for their character ....... just to make full moves for their character. So, to make a spriting page you gotta remember this. Also, spriting pages take about one hour to fully view. So there's little reason to come back to a really pure spriting page once you view. it.

Also, for some reason I have yet to fathom completely, sprites taken as a whole are very, very, VERY touchy about what they do. I've seen other communities where there are no flames at all about spriting, so they *do* exist .... just not here. Now, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of really nice spritiers out there. Solid guys who'll be there for a buddy when times get rough. But there are also spriters who will have your spine if you question their work. Spriters who will never let your criticisms die - EVER. And they swam. Like locusts they swarm. So proceed with caution!

Note to any spriters reading this: I am NOT naming names! Don't Shanghai me! If someone out there in internet-land thinks I'm talking to them ...... I'm not! But this *is* how spriters are viewed in to the rest of the community.

Well, now you know the basic types of Megaman pages. All set to work on one, right? Heh. Well, there's more to it than just that.

Y'see, there may be about a bazillion MM pages, but out of those there's only a handful of GOOD pages and plenty of aspiring pages. What makes a good MM page? Originality. Definitely originality.

See images of PSX and RF CD database? Not. Original. And EVERYONE'S sick of seeing them showcased like they're something new and exciting. Want images? Try DRAWING them, or finding really rare ones. Fer instance, this site is just about the ONLY place on the entire net that has images from Nintendo power on specifically the Megaman Three people. Why? Because I scanned them in myself! And this place is also the only place on the net that has manga images of the MM 3 guys. Why? Because I scanned them in myself! See a trend?

What else is annoying? Tips! Many people create MM pages that have nothing but tips for the main MM/MMX games. Lemme tell you something: EVERYONE knows how to beat a Megaman game. They are straight-forward and easy to get a hang of. And if people want tips, they'll probably go to Mandi's Megaman HP or Game FAQ. IT DOES YOU NO GOOD TO MAKE TIP PAGES! That are useless! Annoying! Unnecessary.! Redundant! You know what people do when they see a MM page that has nothing but tips? They click the back button.

Now, that isn't to say a page with tips is BAD. But diversify, man! A page with only tips is a redundant page, but a page with tips AND (let's say) humor is a page worth remembering. That is to say until everyone creates a humorous tips page.

And roms. Once roms were actually pretty hard to find in the community. Now? Not. Let's just say that I'd rather go to an EMULATION page to get my roms, than a page with the same meager selection of old MM/MMX roms available to download. But, if you insist on making a roms page, ditch the 24-hour rule. It's bullshit. Everyone knows it's bullshit. NO ONE deleted their roms after 24 hours. Why? BECAUSE IT'S BULLSHIT THAT'S WHY! Nintendo knows it's bullshit! Your provider knows it's bullshit. Hell, YOU know it's bull shit! Stop with the bull shit!

For fun, here's some more repeated themes.

1: ZeroXGold's name - ZXG should be most famous for ushering in a wide variety of "Zero X-es". This is quite possibly the most infamous of naming conventions in the community.
2: Megaman Teams - With over 40 teams (historically) the concept of a new team has been done nearly to death. Most people (within the team-scene, mind) say, "it's better to join an existing team than to start a new one."
3: Auto's sprites - They are in every sprite gallery and are usually uncredited. Why steal his sprites? Why?
4: PSX and RF CD images - People like to "showcase" these images on their sites. Makes a little sense since they are images of every single RM in the games ..... still, it is so widely covered that no one cares about them anymore.
5: Sprites INC. - As I said before people really enjoy stealing the sprite sheets featured at Sprites INC. Why? It only makes you seem like a derivative! If you wanna rip sprites then be original!
6: Badly edited MM7 sprites - With the success of the web comic Bob and George, many seek to make their own success by making their OWN web comic with MM as an idiot and with plenty of badly edited MM7 sprites as "original characters". Why? Nobody really likes all those badly recolored characters. Sure, Bob and George did it with success, but that's Bob and George. May not work for you. Certainly doesn't make you seem original

And, of course, among the Megaman community, there is one type of page you'll see most often. The crap page. Crap pages try to be something, but fail miserably.

For instance, a page might look to other pages for inspiration and copy the previously listed "trends" and make their page look really redundant.

You know what else crap pages do? They never update. Not with content. Now, I'm not saying this automatically makes your page a crap page, but it is a substantial factor. Style can only get you so far, but ultimately it's content that'll keep you coming back for more! So, don't be ashamed of your content! Post whatever crap you think is even remotely relevant! I guarantee you people will read it. Before I left Geocities my Bizarro guide got over 700 hits! Now I can't measure hits on one page alone, but it just goes to show you that if it is up long enough it WILL be read by SOMEONE. DON'T take content down. Taking content off your site will leave you with less for people to read. People like to see that a site has .... stuff. Eventually you'll accumulate alotta stuff ..... and who knows? Maybe people will like it! BUT YOU'LL NEVER KNOW IF YOU DON'T POST STUFF UP!

Another thing NOT to do is pointless layout changes. Take my site for example (I'm not being egotistical here, I just don't wanna offend anyone). Now, I consider this site fairly popular. Certainly it's at LEAST the second best MM team on the net. And how many times have I changed my layouts? Hm? Twice. That's right, twice. Why not more? Certainly I might be able to come up with something more .... flashy than my current layout. So why don't I? Well, because my current layout is already pretty good. And with the time it'll take me to make a NEW layout .... I could gather or create new content. So, while my layout's pretty old, my site is fat with new content! Other sites may be more flashy and eye-catching, but they lack substance. If you ask me, that is what counts.

As I cruise around cyber space I recall another point I hasten to add. What's missing in Megaman sites of today. Today's sites are obsessed with news. Daily friggin' news. Hell, they inbreed news faster than cliche country hicks! And they just love to reveiw the same strategies we all know and love. How many times can you say "use top spin to kill shadowman" before it gets boring? But you know what's missing? IMAGES! Back in the "golden age" of Megaman pages, images were a definate staple of the typical Megaman page. Pixelboy changed all that. He gathered a stash of Megaman images including some really rare ones. And you know what? People stopped trying to look for them. And then Pixelboy left the community. Images have never been a popular feature since then. Handy as they are the most popular images are the RF CDs and the PSX remake images and that's IT! Oh, far be it for anybody to find images of the battle network navis or the Rockman Zero people OH NO! Can't have something USEFULL TO OTHER PEOPLE CAN WE!? Nooooooooooo .... we gotta repeat those damn PSX images again and again and again! And when someone DOES make a useful archive with GOOD images it (naturally) dies down very quickly. There must be some law written somewhere that dictates images must be a hassle and a chore to find! Ohhhhhh, but that's not even the kicker! The kicker is that the people who *DO* have usefull rare images use them in their SITE FRAMEWORK! And if they DO post them, they type RIGHT OVER THEM making them USELESS to anyone else SAVE THEMSELVES! Ohhhhhh, we can't share our preacious images can we?? Yeah, you have them, you show us you have them ..... but actually post them? HA-FRIGGIN'-HA!

Want free advice on making a good site? Make it USEFULL, DAMNIT! Don't post things we've already seen and don't post things we won't bother reading! It's a waste of everyone's time! Find something someone else doesn't have ...... AND DO THAT!

So, as I try once again to get some sleep, I am Gauntlet and this has been Gauntlet's guides.

 

Affiliates

Blyka's Door
E-Can Factory
MMAyla
MM BN Chrono X
MM PC Website
Protodude's RM Corner
Reploid Research Lavatory
RM AMV Station
RM EXE Online
RM EXE Zone
RM:Perfect Memories
Sprites INC